Her lips are sealed for now but Indiana State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden
Dunes, told the Chesterton Tribune she is authoring a “major” bill
dealing with education that she will reveal next week as the Indiana General
Assembly gets underway starting Monday afternoon.

Tallian, who represents all of Duneland, said she will hold a press
conference to introduce the bill. All state legislators have until Jan. 11
to introduce legislation they have authored or co-authored.

On the topic of education, Tallian said she expects the current A to F
grading system on schools implemented by former State Superintendent of
Education Dr. Tony Bennett is going to be “thrown out.” That is one of the
goals of newly elected Democrat Glenda Ritz, who beat Bennett in last
November’s election.

Bennett’s system grades schools on an academic growth factor, encouraging
schools to make better test scores. But many top-performing schools saw
their grades fall this year, including Chesterton Middle School which went
from an A in 2011 to a D in 2012, simply because of a lack of increase in
the growth factor.

Tallian said she concurs with Ritz’s stance that the system is “too
complicated” and many schools are not able to make sense of the grades they
received.

“The bottom line is it makes no sense,” Tallian said, adding that even some
of her colleagues on the Republican side would agree.

Meanwhile, while endorsing a plan by the Indiana Skills2Complete Coalition
to provide more financial aid for adults wanting to go back to school,
Tallian helped bring to light that approximately a third of individuals who
are getting into adult education programs are 19 years of age or younger.

“These are young people, usually high school students who have quit school
or were suspended or expelled,” she said.

Tallian said that while the state gives “in the area of $6,500” per student
enrolled in regular school, those in adult education classes only get $900.

She said she would like to see that demographic going back to school or
restarting school “be taken care of” by increasing the amount over $900.

Worker’s Comp

The ranking minority member of the Senate’s Pensions and Labor committee,
Tallian said she will push for a bill she has introduced over a number of
years that would boost worker’s compensation benefits for injury and
disablement on a job.

She said Indiana for a number of years now has been in last place for
worker’s comp and she thinks even the Republicans are “embarrassed” by that
statistic.

“It’s been years that we have not seen a raise in benefits and it is time,”
she said.

Marijuana law

One measure in particular that has brought Tallian some extra attention is
her legislative proposal to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

Since 2011, Tallian has authored a bill that would make possession of less
than three ounces of marijuana a Class C infraction, roughly the same as a
speeding violation, instead of a Class A misdemeanor.

Tallian makes the argument that mitigating marijuana laws would reduce
prison crowding statewide and would do less damage to the records of
offenders. Less state money would be spent on marijuana-related arrests
involving legal costs and processing, she said.

A study was done in the summer of 2011 of the cost-savings potential.
Tallian introduced the bill again in 2012 but said it was not put to a vote
due to it being a contentious election year.

She has more confidence this year the bill will get consideration as fellow
legislators have a more supportive attitude on both sides of the aisle and
states like Colorado and Washington have lifted bans on the drug. Sen. Brent
Steele, R-Bedford, is planning to introduce a similar bill.

Voice in the
wilderness

Tallian said this year she will stand up on the issues and laws she feels
are wrong. Although she is not optimistic she’ll get very far in a
Republican-dominated Senate, Tallian said she will file a bill to repeal
restrictive immigration laws and another to repeal the defunding of Planned
Parenthood.

“I don’t know if I will get a hearing on those but those issues will go
before us and I want to keep people aware that this is still a problem. I’m
going to be the voice in the wilderness,” she said.

But there is a glimmer of hope for her efforts, she said, because federal
court officials have ruled against measures to defund Planned Parenthood and
immigration laws were countered by rulings in the Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals.

Tallian is one of the Senate members of the state’s budget appropriation
committee which will be active this year. She is also ranking minority
member of the Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee, and serves on the
Economic Development Committee.